Regional Information

The Subtropical Dairy region extends 2200km from the Atherton Tablelands in far north Queensland down to Kempsey in northern New South Wales. The region is uniquely characterised by hot and humid summers and mild and dry winters. Average annual rainfalls often exceed 2000mm in northern parts of the state, with cyclones, flooding and drought all common events that challenge farm production and profitability.

There are approximately 650 dairy farmers throughout the region with production systems having generally intensified over the last five years with more milk being produced on fewer, more intensively managed farms. Regional milk production is approximately 600 million litres per annum is primarily for the domestic fresh milk market.

Subtropical dairy farms are typically family owned and operated, average herd size is 200 – 250 cows producing 6,250 litres per cow per year and average farm size is 200 – 250 hectares.

The value of Queensland’s milk production at the farm gate is $340 million per year, after processing for drinking milk and manufactured products this value increases to $1.1 billion per year.

Within the region there are seven major processing plants operated by Lion Nathan and Parmalat and one co-operative (producer owned co-operative) Norco and more than 50 boutique processing factories. When combined, dairy farmers and manufacturing employees account for more than 3,000 people. Investment by dairy farmers amount to over $2.1 billion in farms, cattle and equipment.

Sunshine Coast Dairy Industry

Sunshine Coast Dairy Industry: Developing an Industry Strategic Plan

Researching options to value-add to farm gate milk is a key strategic priority for Subtropical Dairy. In late 2016, Subtropical Dairy Program, Sunshine Coast Council, the University of the Sunshine Coast and Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Queensland funded a pilot project to develop a Strategic Plan for the Sunshine Coast dairy region. In time, it is the intent of Subtropical Dairy to expand this to a northern Australian project. As the first step in achieving this goal, the purpose of this project was to understand the current state of the dairy value chain in the Sunshine Coast region.

Following a value chain analysis approach, the objectives of this project were to:

Strategic Plan for industry development 2010 – 2015

This strategic plan updates the Northern Dairy Industry (NDI) strategic plan developed by a range of NDI value chain stakeholders in 2005, including the farm sector, processors, industry and government organisations.

The major thrust of this plan is to highlight the future priorities for the dairy industry in the production and market regions of the NDI, defined for these purposes as all of Queensland and Northern NSW. The plan aims to provide the industry with direction on areas for collective investment effort by conveying credible views of the future prospects for the dairy industry across these regions of the industry.

The plan provides an outline of:

The expected future demand for milk in fresh dairy products

The expected future supply of milk from dairy farms in the two states

The expected determinants of the value of milk at farmgate in the regions

The factors affecting milk production and the relative attractiveness of milk production regions and sub-regions

Situation and Outlook

The Situation and Outlook report analyses current dairy industry conditions, and the outlook for key drivers that affect dairy operation and profits. An annual report is released mid-year, with updates in February and October.

The October 2015 report is available now from the Dairy Australia website.